Govt borrows Rs383bn thru T-bills

Govt borrows Rs383bn thru T-bills KARACHI: The government was able to raise Rs383 billion through auctioning market treasury bills on Wednesday, an amount much higher than the target of Rs300bn.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) received bids of Rs679bn highlighting the banks tendency to park maximum liquidity in the government papers for the past many years.The situation was relatively changed in FY16 when the private sector credit off-take increased, almost double than the preceding year.

In the latest auction, the government raised the highest amount of Rs218bn for six-month tenor against the bids of Rs373bn. For for three-month papers it raised Rs107bn and Rs58.5bn for 12-month.

It seems the government will continue relying on bank borrowings – including from the State Bank. In the past three years, the government did not borrow from the central bank.